Empowerment on an Unstable Planet

From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change

Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, and Jesse O. Taylor

Advances a theory of social change based on human energy rather than economics

Explores how development and conservation are related to complexity theory and the concepts of emergence

Frames a process in which change efforts can be taken to scale, both in scope of action and in rising sophistication

Empowerment on an Unstable Planet

From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change

Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, and Jesse O. Taylor

Description

Since World War II, development projects have invested more than two trillion dollars towards health services, poverty alleviation, education, food security, and environmental initiatives around the world. Despite these efforts, 20% of the world still lives on less than $1.50 a day and the environment within which all live declines dramatically. There are clear limits to what further investments at this rate can achieve. This book advances the thesis that a more effective and universal foundation for social change and environmental restoration is not money, but human energy.

Using this approach Tibet recovered from being nearly deforested to having over 40% of its land area protected under conservation management. Using principles outlined in this book mothers in northeast India implemented a package of life-changing actions that halved child mortality. They parallel the way New York City has created a citywide conservation program over three-and-a-half centuries. Each of these examples is particular to its time and place, yet a shared set of principles is at work in all of them.

Improving the quality of life for a community starts by strengthening successes already operating. It involves local knowledge and a relatively simple set of principles, tasks, and criteria designed to empower communities. This highly readable account demonstrates how a comprehensive process for social change harnesses the energy of a community and scales it up with a rising number of participants becoming invested in increasingly high-quality work. Richly illustrated with photographs and stories of innovative people and programs in communities ranging from Nepal to Afghanistan to the South Bronx, it provides practical, proven guidelines for creating profound and sustained social change that begins in individual communities and grows to scale.

Empowerment on an Unstable Planet

From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change

Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, and Jesse O. Taylor

Table of Contents

1. What We Can Do with What We Have, Here, Today2. Connecting to the Larger Field of Development & Social Change3. If Traditional Development Practices Were Effective4. The Option Available to Everyone: Mobilizing Human Capacity5. To Grow Empowerment: Four Necessary Principles6. Maintaining Momentum: Seven Tasks7. Staying on Course: The Five Criteria of Evidence-Based Decisionmaking8. The Process of Going to Scale: Interaction among Three Dynamics9. The Global Imperative of Going to Scale: Examples of Environmental Action in New York City and China10. Confronting Empire

Notes

Empowerment on an Unstable Planet

From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change

Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, and Jesse O. Taylor

Author Information

Daniel C. Taylor, EdD, holds an endowed professorship of Equity & Empowerment at the Future Generations Graduate School. He is co-founder of The Mountain Institute as well as the seven Future Generations organizations around the world. He is also senior associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has been knighted by the King of Nepal, was made the first honorary professor of quantitative ecology by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and decorated with the Order of the Golden Arc by Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands.

The late Carl E. Taylor, MD, DrPH, was founding chair of the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also served as UNICEF Representative to China and Country Director for Future Generations Afghanistan. He co-authored the policy paper for the 1978 International Conference on Primary Health Care in Alma Ata. Many of his scientific discoveries were foundational for the Child Survival Revolution that has dramatically lowered child mortality around the world. He was the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and awards.

Jesse O. Taylor, PhD, received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written articles on a variety of topics relating to environmentalism and culture, empire, and aesthetic representations of pollution and climate change, and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor and American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) New Faculty Fellow at the University of Maryland-College Park.

Empowerment on an Unstable Planet

From Seeds of Human Energy to a Scale of Global Change

Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, and Jesse O. Taylor

Reviews and Awards

"This remarkable book, written by three generations of accomplished and engaged members of an extraordinary family, is worth careful scrutiny. Despite half a century of well-meaning global plans and programs, supported by trillions of dollars in foreign assistance, far too many people still live under miserable circumstances, even as our common planet grows increasingly less hospitable. The Taylors provide an alternative path to development-one that they have practiced from China to Afghanistan for most of their lives-scaling up the power and impact of local communities to solve their own problems." -- Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Dean Emeritus, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

"This is a powerful read that goes to the heart of the social, political, and economic change in a part of the world that has witnessed revolution after revolution, even as the nation of Nepal has struggled to catch up with global human advances. It is a history of change that dates back to the colonial era, to freedom, emancipation, and advancement through a combination of human effort with technological gains. This book is sure to enrich all who read it." -- Bhekh B. Thapa, PhD, formerly Nepal's Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Ambassador to the United States and India

"Beautifully written and quite inspiring." -- Dani Rodrik, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

"This book breaks new ground in advancing knowledge for action for the field of international development. The transformative argument offers a field-proven alternative to efforts of the last decades that lost time, money, and human energy. Distinctly different from other approaches on development in the authors' use of complex systems analysis, this book illustrates a practical way to succeed in local settings and take results to scale." -- Patricia L. Rosenfield, PhD, formerly Director, Carnegie Scholars Program, Carnegie Corporation of New York